Introduction: The Use and Abuse of Voluntary Standard-Setting Processes in a Post-Rambus World: Law, Economics, and Competition Policy

Abstract

This special symposium issue of The Antitrust Bulletin addresses two related issues of competition policy in the digital age. The first is whether patent holders can distort voluntary standard-setting processes in ways that allow them to obtain and exercise market power. Such conduct would lead to higher intellectual property royalties for technologies that are used in standards-based products and higher prices for those products. By changing the returns to innovative activity, for both licensees and patentees, this conduct may also distort the timepaths of technological change. The second issue is what, if anything, should be done to prevent this type of anticompetitive behavior from occurring and what to do when it arises. The articles in this symposium address these issues from a variety of perspectives.